U.S. Pat. No. 2,982,689, issued May 2, 1961, discloses the production of the antibiotic thiostrepton using the microorganism Streptomyces azureus, W.C. 3705. The patent states that thiostrepton is an antiinfective medicine having the same general antibiotic spectrum as penicillin. Particular effectiveness of thiostrepton against micrococcic and streptococcic infections is disclosed.
Additional cultures have been previously described as producers of thiostrepton. Streptomyces hawaiiensis, A.T.C.C. No. 12,236 was originally reported by Cron et al., Antibiotics and Chemotherapy, 6: 63-67 (1956), as a producer of bryamycin. Subsequently, Bodanszky et al., Journal of Antibiotics, 16: 76-79 (1963), showed bryamycin and thiostrepton to be identical. Ahmed et al., Hindustan Antibiotics Bulletin, 7: 79-80 (1964), reported Streptomyces species X-14b as a producer of thiostrepton.